Once an expat, always an expat

The Brown List: Everest, tallest Indian restaurant in Seoul

OK, so while Everest Restaurant might not actually boast this above-mentioned distinction — notwithstanding it is technically a Nepalese restaurant — it is certainly one of the best places for South Asian cuisine in the city.

As one expects from any good Indian (or Thai, or Chinese, or Mexican…) restaurant, upon entry one is immediately flooded with ethnic charm in the form of gold and glow and color and sculptures of every origin and theme, from elephants to Shivas to Boddhisatvas and incense burners. Everest gets full points for atmosphere straight off, and neither the potentially distracting Bollywood videos nor the potentially chintzy time zone decoration come off as anything short of delightful (it helps that their competition consists of the uniformly drab Korean eateries, few of which, no matter how tasty, ever look much better than cafeterias).

But it is the food that makes Everest the creme de la curry. The food is all-around good — hearty, well-cooked, well-seasoned, and just the kind of coma-inducing sedative one needs after a long week of teaching or doing whatever you guys do in the Army. With the standard smorgasbord of choices and Indian-style common plates for sharing, this restaurant also boasts reliability and consistency with all of its dishes — everything is good.*

Go for a few dishes and share everything — the curries and tandoori are great, especially the exquisitely-tender mutton sekuwa. Naans are ginormous and appetizers are all quite good — the only thing I wasn’t totally keen on was the biryani rice, which would be OK if it weren’t 8,000 won. Go for the jira and spend the savings on more curry or beer.

Atmosphere: 5/5

Food: 5/5. Standard range of Indian dishes, all of which are very good and reliable. Check out the menu here.

Prices: 6-8,000 for each main dish (curries, tandoori, etc), generous portions of naan at 2-3,000. 3000 cc pitchers of beer for 12,000. Eat and drink like a rajah for under 15,000! And remember, its not a real Indian meal if you don’t go into a food coma.

Directions: See this map. It is in Korean, so to translate more or less: Go out from Dongdaemun Station (Line 1), exit 3. Walk down one block and turn left at Woori Bank. Walk up a small hill until you get to a fork in the road– Everest will be on the right side at the base of the right fork. Go to the second floor and you can’t miss it.

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*(The reliability and good cooking of Dongdaemun Everest, incidentally, cannot be claimed for Everest’s Yeongdeongpo branch, which I have heard from numerous sources is both of lower quality and has made an alarming number of patrons sick)